Football Manager 2012 Message Board

I exist outside of popular culture*. I’ve only just started to watch The Shield, and I mostly listened to Use Your Illusion II this weekend. So I had to Google ‘Gareth Bale’ to find out why everyone was talking about him, which in turn reminded me that Football Manager 2014 is coming out, and that I should get with the times. The managerial machination sim would have prepared me for the news about a Welsh person’s move to a Spanish place for more money that exists in space and time, and it would also have told me about his abilities, stats, training schedule, and possibly his cup size, but it’s not out yet and I refuse to be left behind again by looking at 2013′s information. I’ll wait for 2014′s release, and keep up by watching these videos of the game in action.

(more…)

This year as with every year, there is a brand new edition of Sports Interactive’s management goliath Foot-to-Ball Commander. The 2013 version is out next week, in fact. New features this year include over 17 new types of decomposing tobacco breath odorants to add to your manager’s Unhinged Bellow attack, the option to hurl the most racist members of your premiership team into the heart of the sun and the exclusive Gary Lineker’s Leaving Your Wife Of 20 To Shack Up With An Underwear Model Time Attack mode.

Also there’s a demo, out now on Steam.(more…)

-----------------------------
Football Manager 2012 v12.2.0
-----------------------------

General
=======
- Adjusted the selection process to decide which cities get new stadiums built for hosting international competitions
- Fixed issue where possible opposition team lists were not being filled correctly for a minor club when arranging a friendly.
- Fixed old extended leaves being prolonged when giving out new leaves to new players.
- Fixed crash when a player had been released from their club but the tutoring wasn't cleared down.
- Designated players and Marquee reports from the assistant are now including only players effectively interested in joining the user team.
- Fixed potential for snow in cities where freezing temperatures are not set in the db for a particular season.
- Fixed crash when going to the board request screen when the club doesn't have a chairman.
- Fine tuned squad morale slightly against league position
- Allowed player morale to remain high or low for a bit longer after a significant event eg winning a competition, promotion, relegation etc
- Fixed issue where players don't return from international duty immediately after a finals competition.
- Fixed issue where newly promoted team to a new league just been added was unable to be taken over by a human manager.
- Winning team manager stats are now updated as soon as a team wins a league, not at the end of the league.
- Adjusted the chances for a stadium being expanded after being selected to host a major competition.
- Fixed network game crash when the client selects to view a staffs profile.
- Fixed a bug where contract renewals made by the user where breaking the club salary cap in USA and in Australia.
- Fixed players who have decided to leave on a free transfer general happiness stating they don't want to leave the club.
- Fixed preferred foot selection when reading in future regens from EDT files
- Adjusted general player progression and production of newgens in in-active nations.
- Fixed potential crash if assistant manager reporting on international players has no contract with club team.
- Adjusted the age limit for being a candidate to tutor another player.
- Improved Best Eleven selection.
- Fixed some instances of players unrealistically rejecting loan moves to feeder clubs.
- Fixed Best Player in Europe achievement.
- Fixed player being described as being stripped of the captaincy when he in fact resigned it.
- Stopped B club players getting annoyed when removed as captain after being promoted to the senior side.
- Fixed a rare crash when saving the game just after resigning/being sacked from a club side.
- Fixed issue where user could not control reserve team in matches sometimes.
- Fixed clubs promoted to the BSN/BSS without managers do not appoint managers.
- Carlos Tevez is no longer transfer listed by request at the start of the game.

Backroom Advice
===============
- Stop backroom staff recommending retraining a player in a different position when those games were for a team he went on loan to.

Biography
=========
- Fixed instance of empty space at beginning of biographies for some players.
- Fixed information on player's winners medals being occasionally incorrect if player had particular history movements.

Board Requests
==============
- Big clubs can no longer request a parent club.
- Now able to upgrade training facilities after they've been downgraded.
- Disabled been able to request a parent club if the teams current parent club is a permanent link.
- Disabled Italian teams from been able to purchase a council owned stadium due to them been shared between two teams
- Made boards more willing to accept a request for a new contract.

Confidence
==========
- Add some gradual wage confidence changes when the manager has been in charge of the club for less than a year to stop huge jumps in confidence.

Editor
======
- Added missing Australian marquee player types to the editor.
- Fixed issue with neutral venues being used for a league stage if a previous competition was using a host nation.
- User can now block promotion for B/reserve teams in a league if they come within 2 divisions of their main team.
- Fixed Finnish lower divisions not being able to be added via the editor.

Finances
========
- Slowed down the decay of modern new stadiums for clubs in financial difficulties.
- Balanced costs of youth/training facility expansions
- Adjusted non-player wages.
- Adjusted Greek sponsorships.
- Exchange rate issue for record transfer fee.
- Adjusted Chinese ticket prices.
- Fixed Colombian team's estimated values rising greatly at unusual times.
- Adjusted relegated team wage budgets.
- Adjusted Romanian finances.
- Fixed wrong amount in news about sponsorship in Brazilian First Division.
- Fixed San Marino (club side) does not get any TV Money when promoted to Serie A.
- Added Rangers, Darlington and Portsmouth starting in administration with points deduction.
- Adjusted Romanian youth scheme costs.

International Management
========================
- Fixed ai manager reported as sacked when he is stepping down after winning the European Championship.
- Fixed new manager resigning after competition finishes, despite manager responsible for poor performances having already been sacked.
- Holiday to Next Squad Selection Date will now holiday to the earliest squad selection date of any national team the human controls.
- Added 'Take Control' button to news item asking about whether you want to take control of newly-created Olympic team.
- Improved AI squad selection with regard to the number of strikers selected.

Manager Interaction
===================
- Competition winning topic is no available immediately after a team wins a league or cup.
- Fixed code in possible comment in the recent signing topic.
- Fixed code in pitch condition comment.
- Fixed responding to a manager who has been negative towards you allows you to say it is nice to receive positive comments.
- Fixed journalist name appearing instead of manager's name in overachieving comment by AI manager to human.
- Fixed code in Manager Interaction news item concerning Club Survival Chances -
- Fixed appears in AI Manager comment on user's high flying team
- Fixed been able to state other managers have criticised another manager when no comments have been made about them in the press
- Improved managers comments about other managers playing style

Match
=====
- Fixed issue where having assistant manager in control of reserve team team talks didn't work correctly.
- Reserve/youth team now fill the bench with more players when playing the first team.
- Made AI teams use touchline instructions to target teams playing without full backs
- Fixed AI teams sometimes over-rotating team in important cup matches, or the last game of the season


Newgens
=======
- Fixed cosmetic news item issue with youth intake news if club has no youth team
- Adjusted randomisation of newgen mental attributes at creation
- Adjusted the number of players in American dev league teams over time.

News Items
==========
- Fixed appearing in "Injury Worry" news item after announcing squad.
- Fixed news item concerning a team's history of tournament qualification being incorrect.
- Some pre-match strings have been improved.
- Fixed rare instance of newly-transferred player potentially stating that he is looking forward to playing with a former team mate.
- Fixed competition bidding news item using wrong year when announcing final hosts.
- Fixed no button been available on the news item to chat with an unhappy player when he has gone public with his unhappiness.
Fixed code appearing in competition joint hosts announcement mail.
-Fixed 'without a club for a short time' for players who had been without a club nearly a year.
- Stopped news item potentially advising setting non-contract player to be made available for loan.

Non Player Movement
===================
- Fixed issue that was causing A-league clubs to hire 23 year olds as managers.

Player Interaction
==================
- Recommend possible future staff role conversation no longer ends after the initial suggestion.
- News item about player having their transfer request refused no longer refers to a 24-year old player as an "ageing".
- Players are B and C teams now report their happiness to the B and C team manager rather than the A team manager.
- Stopped players who have just returned from a leave of absence getting unhappy about lack of first team football.
- Stopped players unhappy about a lack of first-team football having their unhappiness removed in the close season.
- Stopped players thinking moving to club more at home will not make him feel more at home via homesickness conversation.
- Stopped players who are already unhappy about wanting to leave getting upset about not wanting to leave.
- When a user takes over a new club, players who were already at the unresolvable stage of unhappiness will now hold a private chat.
- Fixed players getting unhappy about the team underachieving in opening and closing stage leagues when the team has won the opening stage of the competition.
- Players are now transfer listed by request when they come asking to leave and the manager agrees to sell them as soon as possible.
- If a player is unhappy about the number of rivals at the club but are getting first team games they will no longer request to be transfer listed.
- Players who are on holiday or on a leave of absence can no longer have private chats.
- Players are now transfer listed when the user uses the statement "This was only going to be a warning but if that is -your attitude I'm going to transfer list you now" in the warning transfer listing conversation.
- Fixed not been able to give into players when first talk to them about wanting to leave the club.

Press Conferences
=================
- Fixed press conference discussing chances of avoiding relegation when team has already ensured safety.
- Fixed contradictory press conference news item saying the manager is 'pleased with squad' despite stating areas could be strengthened.
- Fixed press conference question being asked about opposition goalkeeper being injured with all substitutions made so outfield player has to go in goal as if it applied to your team.

Team Meetings
=============
- Previous team meetings are now available from the team meeting screen.
- Improved player reactions in team meetings.
- Stopped the user been able to hold an inappropriate team meeting after losing in the play offs.
- Stopped team meeting suggestions been sent on the same day as a human has a game as it ends up telling the user they can't hold a meeting.

Scouting
========
- Scout of smaller club returning with a low amount of results when being assigned to scout a nation he has full knowledge of.
- Ensured scout only takes a day to scout a full knowledge nation, when part of a region/continent.
- Stopped user in charge of big club from being recommended players of a poor standard by a top scout.
- Helped prevent user from getting duplicate scout reports on same day from same scout.

Transfer/Contracts
==================
- Ensured smaller club's reputations don't fluctuate too much when signing/selling players.
- Fixed 'Contract Length' being blank when starting contract negotiations in some cases.
- Stopped player midway through loan gets another loan offer accepted by parent club and moves to new club.
- Got AI Teams to respond after user offers their negotiated transfer terms for their player.
- Encouraged AI Teams to be more pro-active to offload players who they aren't going to register for the League.
- Reduced amount of players from a number of different leagues are moving to the Middle East.
- Stopped user being able to offer a higher wage percentage than the board are allowing for a loan deal.
- Stopped players wage dropping due to activating a 'Wage After Reaching League Games' clause after initially seeing his wage rise due to the 'Match Highest Earner' Clause in his contract being activated.
- Encouraged Spanish lower league sides to not sign as many free transfers which was leading to bloated squad sizes.
- Encouraged youth players who were previously unwilling to enter contract negotiations with newly appointed manager, to enter negotiations.
- Fixed problem with Swedish youngsters unwilling to move from youth contract to part-time contract.
- Stopped player demanding 'Team of the Year' bonus, despite the division not having a team of the year award.
- Fixed player on trial states he has previously been offered a contract when he hasn't.
- Stopped player stating it would be a dream to sign for the users club, when contract talks have previously failed.
- Allowed user to be offered a part time contract that they can accept without altering the 'Contract Type' dropdown box.
- Finnish youth contract wages after 20 games clause demands reduced.
- Fixed user not being able to progress past a 'Must Respond' news item regarding a co-ownership decision.
- Fixed being on holiday when a transfer offer is accepted leads to the news item missing the Offer Contract button, news now appears.
- Stopped important team players being transfer listed and loan listed when nation not active.
- Fixed when attempting to sell players with admin club the deal will fall through with no explanation.

UI
==
- Fixed issue where 2 red cards are shown on match screen timebar when only 1 was given.
- Uefa nation coefficients now show correctly when starting the game before June 2011.
- Fixed issue with team award formation panel sometimes not using correct colours for players.
- Added missing team talk tone information to the assistant team talk feedback panel.
- Fixed bug where hitting Live just after a replay starts, doesn't restart the match.

Competitions
============
Argentina
---------
- Best performing Argentine team in the Copa Sudamericana now qualifies for the Libertadores when Argentina is an inactive league.

Asia
----
- Fixed players on trial being able to play in Asian Continental Club competitions.
- Fixed foreign player rule for the Asian Champions League and Asian Confederation Cup.

Australia
---------
- Avoid the possibility to have 2 Marquee players in the squad when buying one and renewing a contract from Full time to Marquee at the same time.

Belarus
-------
- Added winner/loser prize money to Super Cup.
- Main Cup 3rd round, 4th round and Semi-Final now just one leg.
- Fixed Highest League fixture clashes.
- Adjusted number of teams for Highest and First League for season 2011 and 2012.

Brazil
------
- Updated National Second Division prize money.
- Updated first international transfer window closing date for 2012 onwards.
- Updated Cup appearance/prize money.

Bulgaria
-------
- Fixed "A" Group foreign player rules.
- Fixed winter transfer window.

Croatia
-------
- Fixed winter transfer window.
- Updated First Division 2012/13 dates

Continental
-----------
- Fixed missing extra-time in Club World Championship semis and final not being on Sunday.

Denmark
-------
- Kolding IF and Kolding BK unblocked from various Danish competitions.
- Removed U21 requirements when home team is from the Danish Series or the Danish Lower Division.
- Stopped Superliga teams getting prize money for win or draw after each match.

England
-------
- Fixed an issue with fixture scheduling in the Premier Division around Xmas 2021.
- Fixed FA Trophy Final never being played at Wembley.

Europe
------
- Champions Cup group stage is not treated as a "later stage" now.

Finland
-------
- Adjusted Finnish Cup attendances.

France
------
- French CFA should now be getting history updated every year when its not active.
- Made clubs from French Territories that take part in the French Cup a little bit more varied.

Germany
-------
- Overage players can now play in U23 team friendly matches.
- Fixed wrong team shown to be at home for Super Cup after a team has won the double.

Hong Kong
---------
- League Cup history is now updated correctly.

India
-----
- Updated National Football League schedule.
- Updated Durand Cup.
- Updated second transfer window.

International
-------------
- Fixed an issue where wrong nations were qualified to the Olympic Games in future years.
- Fixed an issue where player bans were not being updated for certain matches.

Israel
------
- Beitar Jerusalem deducted 2 points.

Italy
-----
- Fixed Serie C1 and C2 clubs not being able to buy Non-EU players based in Italy.

Mexico
------
- Fixed Mexican Promotion League Opening/Closing Stage wins not being recorded in Player Achievements.
- Fixed teams playing matches against the same team either away or at home for both Opening and Closing stages of Mexican First Division and Promotion League.
- Fixed mid-season transfer window.

Peru
----
- Fixed teams having a friendly in-between the first and second league games.

Poland
------
- Updated Super Cup rules.
- Updated U18 disciplinary rules.
- Updated FA Cup disciplinary rules.

Portugal
--------
- Fixed Portuguese Second League clubs having short summer break for players.
- Fixed match rules for the League Cup.

Romania
-------
- Fixed Second League first 11 U21 rule (should be players born after 1.1.1990).

Russia
------
- When starting the game in July 2011, the Russian Super Cup in 2012 is now setup with the correct teams.
- Russian teams now play friendlies in their winter break.
- Fixed transfer windows from the 2012/13 season onwards.
- Fixed Premier Division matches being rearranged to be played during the winter break.
- Changed Cup prize monies from US Dollar to Russian Ruble.
- Premier League schedule and rules updated for season 2012/13 onwards.
- Changed generic newgen start age from 15 to 16.
- New Foreigner rules added.

Serbia
------
- Fixed missing disciplinary rules for First Division.

South Korea
-----------
- Fixed second reserve group teams only playing each other twice.
- Updated relegation system.

Spain
-----
- Non-EU Under 19 players in Spain now need to be registered in order to play.

South America
-------------
- Fixed squad registration date for the South American Recopa being too early.

Switzerland
-----------
- Sion deducted 36 points.

Turkey
------
- Turkish 2nd division now stays at 17 teams per group with 3 teams relegated each season.
- Updated Turkish Cup format.

USA
---
- No more virtual players displayed in the MLS Combine on match day unless they are absolutely necessary due to players multiple injuries.
- Discovery Player rule has been improved.
- Fixed Weighted Lottery player to not always have a contract set after they've been assigned to a club.
- Players wage demands in the scout reports have been improved.
- Fixed issue with Sporting Kansas City players making debuts when they played for the old Kansas club.
- MLS Academy Apprentice contract wages are now correct when the players got generated.
- Goal bonuses are now available on MLS contracts.
- Fixed allocation funds to be increased of max 650k $ when a MLS club receive money from a transfer made with monthly payments.
- Fixed an issue where players could be signed in the MLS even if they were going to break the salary cap without the possibility to remove any other players from the squad to make more room.

Uruguay
-------
- Universidad Católica now play their home games against Colo Colo and Universidad de Chile at their own Stadium.

Wales
-----
- Fixed format of the Welsh League Cup.

The continuing misadventures of first-time manager Ian Football, leading hapless team Worcester City FC to their uncertain future in Football Manager 2012. Previous installments are here.

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Hell, I even knew that it was going to happen more often or not. That didn’t make it any less painful when, for the first time, my team lost. And lost hard.

Accrington Stanley? Who are they? Exactly.

Would it really be so bad if I quit right now?(more…)

Ian Football, manager of Worcester City football club, can’t come to the phone right now, so I’m here to hold the line until he gets back.

I just wanted to say: I am really enjoying Football Manager 2012.(more…)

I am playing Football Manager 2012. I have never played Football Manager before. I only know a bit about football. I’m a bit scared. This post is in character as Ian Football, newly-crowned manager of Worcester City Football Club, a team deemed to have suffered a “32 year barren spell.” The first in this series is here. The next post, by the way, will be out of character, detailing my own thoughts on football management games.

I have made three key mistakes so far.(more…)

A sad truth: it would, perhaps, be all too easy to pen another RPG diary. It’s all about the anecdotes, rather than discovery and learning. I’ve had an itch to start work another mega-long feature for a while, but I’ve struggled to identify a game I’d like to do it with – I want to surprise myself, not repeat myself. So, when a Twitter shout-out brought up the presumably mickey-taking suggestion of Football Manager 2012, it actually made perfect sense. I know almost nothing about football, after all, apart from that it features an angry man called Wayne who has hair plugs and likes prostitutes. Truly, I would be a stranger in a strange land. I would learn. I would struggle. I would suffer. I might even learn a little something about feet and balls. Are you hunching uncomfortably in front of your PC? Then let us begin.(more…)

The year’s big guns have all been loosed now, and Christmas wallet-raiding is fully upon us. So, which games will be cleaning up on Steam and at Uk retail? Skyrim, MW3, AssRev, or another challenger? And is the resurgence of Splash Damage’s last game enough for me to justify saying ‘Byte vs Brink’?(more…)

Updates to Football Manager 2012 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Competitions
============
Australia
---------
- Fixed a bug where the game gets stuck when the user is forced to register a youth player who turned into a pro in the Australian A-League.

Finland
-------
- Fixed issue with player bans not working correctly in the First Division.

General
=======
- Fixed crash when using the "Pick Team For Me" button when all manageable clubs have been taken over by human managers.
- Fixed crash when activating a new division level which has promotion/relegation playoffs with the division above and is made up of regional divisions. (e.g. Third level in Sweden)
- Fixed crash on game startup if a club's loyalty and passion supporter profiles are set to 0 using the editor.
- Game now doesn't allow nations to be deactivated in 2011 before its competitions have finished. This was causing a few problems later in the game.
- Fixed bug where Spanish outfield player could not be given a valid squad number before match if a goalkeeper already had number 25 and number 13 was the only number free.
- Fixed an issue which was affecting AMD/ATI Radeon Cards causing intermittent crashes

Match
=====
- Some colour clash fixes.

International
=============
- Fixed bug where players currently selected in an U19 team are then deemed to old when the U19 European Championship qualifiers are scheduled.
- Fixed bug where a replacement player could not be called up to a national team that doesn't have a full squad selected.
- The overage players in the squad can now play for U23 team friendlies before the Olympic Games.

UI
==
- Twitter and Youtube login now works on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Updates to Football Manager 2012 have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

Training
========
- Included positioning training to goalkeeper shot stopping training

Competitions
===========
USA
===
- Fixed a crash on season turnover when adding MLS into the game without having it loaded at game start.
- Fixed Vancouver, Portland and Philadelphia not having Academy players properly generated.
- Fixed a crash when playing with two human managers and one of them was claiming a player waived by the other human manager.

General
=======
- Fixed an issue where adding a league was causing more people then needed to be loaded into the game.

Editor
======
- Fixed an issue with international competitions sometimes getting the wrong number of teams from a continent.

Match
=====
- Fixed scaling of distance run stat in match stats.

Football Manager 2012 is Now Available on Steam!

Counting over 800 new features, not including changes to the rules of the games 50+ leagues, Football Manager 2012 promises to be the most realistic, immersive and playable football management simulation ever for any fan who has ever dreamed of making the big decisions, both on and off the field.

The problem with approaching any game with the scope of the Football Manager series is that you're never 100 percent certain that the snazzy new feature you're making 'ooh' noises at is one that's unique to this iteration, such is the scale of Sports Interactive's baby. And with a game that has no ...

Ah, Football Manager, the gaming experience people think they can handle; the game that's almost always approached with the same carefree manner that one might begin a youthful dabble with crystal meth. "Football Manager may have ruined my relationship with the outside world last October but I'm old...